Quotes Library

March 28, 2025

A government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.

James Reston (1909–1995), American journalist, The Portable Curmudgeon, Jon Winokur, ed. (New York: 1987), p.124

How frequently do you or would you leak? Drop a hint? Send something off in a brown paper envelope?

And good that governments do leak, else Reston (one of the most influential journalists of his day) would have had a lot fewer scoops to report.


More Quotes

January 31, 2025
It is we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; not yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.
March 1, 2025
00:38
…considering the imbecility of human judgment and the difficulty of choice in new and doubtful things…it is much easier and pleasanter to follow than to guide [others].
May 8, 2025
Diplomacy is about surviving till the next century—politics is about surviving till Friday afternoon.
Page 10 of 63